Engine air cleaners, and particularly those intended for small engines, must be manufactured in a multitude of sizes and shapes in order to accommodate the specifications of different engine manufacturers. Many such air cleaners are designed with removable and replaceable filter elements which must also be stocked in a large variety of sizes. In addition, removable element filters may be subject to leakage as they contain seals which are subject to misalignment and wear.
To eliminate air leakage and provide a single, inexpensive disposable air cleaner for use on a wide variety of machines, the air cleaner must be made of inexpensive disposable materials and be adaptable for attachment to machines having a wide variety of mounting arrangements. Typically, however, cleaners made of lightweight, inexpensive material such as simple plastics and paper are not strong enough to sustain high internal pressures encountered in use. It is necessary to provide a filter means of high strength to maintain the cleaner integrity, however, the materials appropriate for this function do not generally conform to the requirements for cost, weight and disposability.
In the present invention, we have solved the above problems by creating a disposable air cleaner, preferably made up of lightweight, inexpensive, disposable materials while creating a reusable adapter means which is permanently mounted on the machine, with the adapter means supplying the structural support necessary for the lighter weight disposable air cleaner. Simultaneously, we have reduced the likelihood of leakage in the air cleaner by eliminating all seals except a single seal required to attach the filter to the adapter assembly.